Re (1): living among the dead

Hello Tony,

Thanks for your encouraging words on both accounts: that I am normal and conversely that I have God-given talent. :) Of course there are many times I don't feel so normal—when I feel like the most heretical and sinful child of God upon the entire planet. Yet if there is virtue to be found in my words, it is precisely to the degree that they are honest. I suspect that if we could peer under the scalp of most Christians, we would find similar times of turbulence and doubt. In fact, if we did not find these times, we might very well have grounds for questioning whether or not these people had ever really wrestled with the question, must less settled on the Answer.

A thoughtful friend offered a very helpful concept to me recently. He pointed out that no man can behold the face of God and live and thus we have died; we no longer have lives of our own. Such pronouncements could be seen as weird or just plain morbid by those who have never walked the King's highway, but that makes them no less true. The transformation that takes place from sinner to sainthood begins with a type of crucifixion. We are still capable of sin, but it no longer brings as much pleasure as it once did. In fact, we may become even more restless at times than we did before we were crucified because our actions are now alien to our true (transformed) natures and our souls will not quiet until they find rest in the arms of their Savior. Why? Because they have been reconstituted to breathe rarefied air and can find true satisfaction only in it.

There are certainly times I kick against the goads and disdain the fact that I am dead. But I have seen the face of God, and, like it or not, there is no going back; life travels in only one direction. And even if I could go back, to what would I return? The man who refuses to die is not alive. Perhaps my ambivalence can be traced to the realization that I must face the fact of dying, for the life I live is no longer my own. Like the dead in director M. Night Shyamalan's excellent Sixth Sense, I see only what I want to see. And who, may I ask, is the Resurrection and the Life? It seems nothing else will satisfy a dead man. My problem, then, is that I often look for the living among the dead.

God bless,
Eric

Philosophy and the Prince: A Tale of Priorities

• Re(2): living among the dead - By Karen October 24, 2004 at 05:34:25 PM
  • Re(3): living among the dead - By Eric October 25, 2004 at 02:39:29 PM
    • Re(4): living among the dead - By Becky October 31, 2004 at 03:01:30 PM
      • Re(5): living among the dead - By Eric October 31, 2004 at 07:52:20 PM
        • Re(6): living among the dead - By Becky November 9, 2004 at 09:21:29 AM
          • Re(7): living among the dead - By Eric November 14, 2004 at 12:58:07 PM
        • Re(6): living among the dead - By Bill November 1, 2004 at 01:22:54 PM
    • Re(4): living among the dead - By Karen October 25, 2004 at 05:21:16 PM
      • Re(5): living among the dead - By Eric October 25, 2004 at 06:19:18 PM
  • Re(3): living among the dead - By Bill October 25, 2004 at 01:21:18 PM